Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2470 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require a landlord to include the landlord's general excise tax number of the first page of a rental agreement entered into with a tenant.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Office of Consumer Protection of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and by the Department of Taxation. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Association of Realtors.

Your Committee finds that this measure would facilitate implementation of current Hawaii law that requires landlords to provide their taxpayer identification number to all tenants for the purpose of filing for a low-income tax credit. Your Committee further finds that this measure will promote the processing of the low-income tax credit for eligible taxpayers and reduce unnecessary inconvenience to tenants who attempt to secure the identification number after the written rental agreement is entered into by the landlord and tenants.

Your Committee has amended this measure by amending the reference of "general excise tax number" to "Hawaii tax identification number" to comport with the current language adopted by the Department of Taxation as reported in its announcement No. 2004-16. Your Committee has also amended this measure by changing the effective date from "upon approval" to "December 31, 2006" and providing that this measure shall apply to written rental agreements entered into on or after December 31, 2006. This change will allow the Hawaii Association of Realtors' Standard Forms Committee adequate time to implement the new requirement.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2470, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2470, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.